Tag Archives: Pantages Theater

On Your Feet (Good Food And Good Music)

Posted on July 19, 2018 | Comments Off on On Your Feet (Good Food And Good Music)

I can’t believe that my current season of musicals is almost done! Then again, right after this season ends in August the next season starts in September so I won’t have that much of a break (unlike last time when “Hamilton” was here for several months). But this past weekend was the next to last musical of this season, and we made sure we had a good night out!

We started at Wood & Vine again. It really is our favorite pre-musical restaurant and we knew they’d be changing the menu soon so we wanted to go back before the change. We loved so much of the food we had last time and we wanted to have those again in case they were not on the new menu. We were seated on the patio which was nice since the weather had cooled down a bit since the heat wave.

We ordered the mac and cheese, asparagus with tomatoes, and tortellini again that we had last time. But we switched it up and decided to try the rib eye steak as well. It is a bit of a splurge, but it’s a huge steak that was more than enough for the 3 of us to share. If I was only sharing it with 1 other person, I think the steak and a veggie side would be enough to make me full.

The steak was so amazing! We all miss the bone marrow (and hope that it will be coming back to the menu soon!), but the steak was delicious and I have a feeling we will be ordering it again the next time we are there!

We were just deciding which of the desserts we wanted to order when we discovered that they were sending us all of the desserts! They really do spoil us there and I love getting to have all of them awesome food. But we really weren’t expecting to get the desserts sent to us and we were all so happy to try them. They had made some changes to the desserts and they were even better than they were the last time.

After we finished dinner, we headed across the street to the Pantages for our show. This time, we were seeing “On Your Feet” which is the Gloria Estefan musical.

I’ve seen a few different jukebox musicals and expected it to remind me of “Jersey Boys” or “Beautiful“. We although thought maybe it would be similar to “The Bodyguard” since some reviews said it was similar to watching a concert. We all went into the show with an open mind and excited to see what it would be like.

I’m familiar with Gloria Estefan’s music, but I knew that I didn’t know all of her music or that some popular songs were hers. And I knew for sure that I wasn’t too familiar with her story of how she got to where she is now. So I really liked how the musical really did tell her story of her family and how they came to America as well as how she got started as a teenager. It really was a great telling of her life and even though there were a few brief flashbacks it was almost all chronological so it was an easy story to follow.

And as expected, there were a ton of songs that I knew and loved and a few songs that I loved and didn’t know were hers. Every time a song started you could feel the energy of the audience perk up. Fortunately nobody was singing along (a problem we’ve experienced before at shows) but everyone was enjoying the show and loving the performances of the actors. They were all really talented and there were times I forgot I was watching someone play Gloria Estefan and not watching her sing.

I definitely learned a lot about her story and it made me admire her so much for all the work she has done for her career. It was impressive to see how she had to fight to be a crossover artist and sing in English. And I didn’t know about the bus accident that she was in and how doctors thought she might not walk again. In the car ride home from the show, I was looking up so much about her story because I realized how little I knew about her. While my mom enjoys musicals, she doesn’t love them the same way I do so I usually don’t recommend shows to her. But this was one that I called her about as soon as I was home and told her she needed to see it when it was touring near them.

Our last show of the season is about a month away and then we’ll be in our next season. And of course we are already looking at the 2019-2020 season which should be announced toward the end of this year or beginning of next year. They’ve only announced one show so far, but I have a feeling we will be getting season tickets again because of how fun these nights are for me and my friends.

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out) Default ThumbnailAnother Musical Season (or Enjoying A Repeat Musical) Default ThumbnailThe Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note) Default ThumbnailA Weird Night In Hollywood (or Another Musical In Our Season) Default ThumbnailAn Amazing Dinner and Show (or The Food Might Have Been The Highlight Of The Night) Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food)

Comments Off on On Your Feet (Good Food And Good Music)

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

A Backstage Adventure (or Back to Back Pantages Nights)

Posted on June 27, 2018 | Comments Off on A Backstage Adventure (or Back to Back Pantages Nights)

We were just at the Pantages, but we had another night out there the night after seeing “Cinderella“. But this time, we weren’t there to see a show. Because we have season tickets, we were invited to an open house and backstage tour of the theater! I was so excited to get to do this for a couple of reasons. I am a huge theater nerd and wanted to see what all the backstage stuff was like. Plus, I love to learn how things work and all the technical weirdness. So this was something I  was thrilled to get to check out!

When we were at Wood & Vine the night before for dinner, the manager told us that they were one of the restaurants that would be featured and have free food. And he told us about a few of the other restaurants that would be there. We figured out that we wouldn’t be there right when the open house started, but he said that would be fine and that there would be lots of food and fun no matter what time we got there.

He also promised to take a photo of the theater empty since that wouldn’t be possible for us to take when the open house started. And he was right that the empty theater is an incredible sight to see.

We arrived about 30 minutes after it started and the lobby and many parts of the theater were almost empty. But when we got to the stage where all the food was, it was packed! They had a much larger crowd than normal at the open house so many of the restaurants were running low on what they were serving. But we did get to have the Nutella Bombshell from Wood & Vine again along with a few other nibbles. While we were looking forward to the food, the main reason we were there was to check out all the stuff we normally can’t see.

The tour of backstage was more of an exploration. So many different areas were open for us to check out and take photos. We first went to the star dressing rooms which were on the stage level. In the biggest dressing room there was a poster with signatures of so many actors who had used that room while doing a show at the theater.

And of course, with the dressing rooms having giant mirrors we had to take some silly photos in them.

Then we went below the stage to see the ensemble dressing rooms. The star dressing rooms are nice because they are big, but to me I think the ensemble ones feel a bit more exciting because I think about all the performers sitting next to each other getting ready for their show.

In all the dressing rooms, people had signed their name in different areas. I didn’t get photos of them, but the smaller mirrors with wooden frames had signatures all over them as well as under the tables. It was fun to see the casts from shows we saw recently who autographed various pieces of furniture.

I was hoping we’d be able to check out the orchestra pit area, but that was closed to the public (only a few spaces were closed off to us, but that was one of them). But next to the orchestra pit was where the lift area was created for when “The Lion King” was performing there. I don’t know if they use the lift area for more than storage now, but I feel like there have been some trap door stuff in shows I’ve seen so they must still use it.

We continued to wander around the various rooms below the stage. Since “Cinderella” closed the night before and the next show wasn’t going to be in the theater for a few days, most things were pretty empty. It would have been cool to see some of how they organize the props, costumes, and set pieces; but I understand why it would be difficult to do an open house when there is a production using the space. Maybe one day in the future I’ll have a friend in a show there so I can explore some more backstage while I show is running.

When we got back up to the stage level, we checked out the restaurants that were still there and got a bit more food. We also took a look at some of the random things on the sides of the stage like a collection of rubber ducks that were just off stage and the photos on the walls of various production crews from the shows that recently toured there.

Things were starting to clear out a bit when we were getting ready to leave, but it was nice to see things with not as many people crowding the stage. I took time just to look out at the audience and take it in. I don’t perform in front of an audience that often so it was nice to feel that sort of feeling I had when I used to do plays again. And of course I took a look at where our seats were located to see what it looks like looking at our seats from the stage (compared to the stage from our seats).

I don’t know what I was expecting when we found out about the open house, but it did exceed my expectations in a bunch of ways. I just loved getting to see a different part of the theater than what I usually get to see as an audience member. And I think all of us just enjoyed having another night out too. We’ll be back at the theater in a few weeks for our next show, but I think it will feel different watching now that we know what the view is like for the actors on the stage.

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default Thumbnail42nd Street (or So Much Tap Dancing!) Default ThumbnailBook Of Mormon and Marrow (or Another Night Out At The Pantages) Default ThumbnailThe End Of My Musical Season (or Finally Enjoying Phantom) Default ThumbnailEnjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners) Default ThumbnailSunsets and Songs (or Why Season Tickets To The Pantages Was The Best Decision Ever) Default ThumbnailMore Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages)

Comments Off on A Backstage Adventure (or Back to Back Pantages Nights)

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

An Amazing Dinner and Show (or The Food Might Have Been The Highlight Of The Night)

Posted on June 26, 2018 | 1 comment

It was already time for another musical this past weekend! It’s been so fun having our shows back to back and I’m happy that it’s going to be that way for a little while. And with all of our shows, we try to have a fun dinner as well. We realized recently that it had been almost a year since the last time we were at Wood & Vine so we had to make a plan to go back there! Because we have gotten to know the manager from the times we had been there before, I sent him an email once we made our reservation to give him a heads up that we’d be there.

And the manager really hooked us up while we were there! First, we sat upstairs and got to sit at his favorite table. We had a great view of the theater and it allowed for some fun people watching.

The menu had changed since last year so we took some time figuring out what we wanted to eat. The bone marrow we love wasn’t on the menu this time (but they did mention it might be coming back in the future), but there were still lots of options that sounded good to us.

Everything on the menu is designed to be shared. In the past we’ve gotten a few things that we all wanted and then one or two things that only some of the group wanted. But this time, we seemed to agree on everything we wanted. We got the cheese plate, the scallops, the salmon, the lobster mac and cheese, and the asparagus and tomatoes. But when the manager saw what we got and noticed we didn’t have the tortellini, he sent some to us because he said we needed to try it (he was right). And he also spoiled us by sending us all the desserts from the menu! It was so much food, but nothing was too rich or heavy so we didn’t feel overstuffed.

All the food came out pretty quickly so we were able to enjoy our time and relax while we were eating. We didn’t feel rushed (which has been an issue in the past with other restaurants) and we felt like dinner was a nice starter to a fun evening out. It feels like such a splurge to eat there even though it really isn’t. But it feels so much nicer and the food is so delicious that it does seem like a treat.

We ended up staying there until about 5 minutes before the show started (the benefit of eating right across the street from the theater) and got inside with time to spare. This time, the show we were seeing was “Cinderella”, which was one of the shows I saw when I went to NYC a few years ago. I enjoyed the show when I saw it then and I was excited to see how the tour compared to the Broadway production.

I was impressed with the tour production. It was almost exactly the same as the Broadway show with the sets and costumes. I know that it’s not always possible to do that when it’s a tour since they have to be able to pack it up and move it from city to city, but they were able to keep it all the same as I remembered it. I’m sure there were some differences, but nothing noticeable or that I could tell.

Dani and Michelle hadn’t seen this musical before so they were excited to check it out. And they both enjoyed it. It was a nice show to see when life has been a bit stressful. We could watch and escape and there was nothing too heavy and dramatic. And of course since we are all Disney nerds this was nice. I know the musical isn’t the same as the Disney cartoon, but it’s close enough.

I’ve had more and more opportunities lately to see musicals for the second (or third) time and that’s still a treat to me. I love being able to compare productions and see the little changes that are made. The shows are still pretty much the same but I do like to notice the little differences or things that make each production special. While this show was so similar to the Broadway show, it still felt special and different in a way. The performers were all awesome and the way the audience reacts is always different too. I seriously just enjoy being in an audience with a group experiencing any show. And that was exactly what I did.

While our next musical is in a few weeks, we’ve actually already been back to the Pantages already! But that will be shared on here tomorrow!

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailTaking Time For A Show (or Seeing Summer) Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food) Default ThumbnailFinally Seeing A Popular Show (or It’s “Rent” Time!) Default ThumbnailThe Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note) Default ThumbnailThe Bodyguard and Bone Marrow (or An Amazing Dinner At Wood & Vine) Default ThumbnailA Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out)

1 Comment

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , , , ,

The Color Purple (or Such An Empowering Musical)

Posted on June 5, 2018 | 1 comment

For the next few months, it seems like I’ll be going to a musical every few weeks! The way this season is set, each musical is having a shorter run than what we’ve seen before. So each new show comes pretty quickly. But I’m not complaining. I love my nights at the Pantages and they are such a bright spot in my life.

And this week, the musical that my group went to go see was “The Color Purple”.

I read the book and saw the movie when I was in high school, but I don’t think that I read it or saw it since then. And high school was a little while ago for me so I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t remember enough of the plot and would get lost trying to figure out the story. Sometimes I can get so lost in watching a show that I don’t pay attention to the dialogue or songs and then get pretty confused. I didn’t want that to happen with this show. So I looked at a quick summary of the book online before we met up to get dinner before the show. And a few things seemed familiar to me and there were several plot points and characters that I had forgotten about, so I was glad that I did this.

Our dinner was pretty casual at Green Leaf Chop Shop and somehow we ended up being really early for things! A lot of times we are getting to the theater 5-10 minutes before the show should start, but this time we were inside 30 minutes ahead. So we took our time getting to our seats and continued to catch up while we waited for the show to start.

Even though I wasn’t too familiar with the story since it had been so long since high school, I thought I remembered little bits and pieces of it and that seemed to be confirmed by reading the summary online. I thought this was going to be one of the sadder musicals we saw because I remembered it being a very sad story. But I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t the case!

While there are a lot of sad and upsetting parts of the story, that is really not how the musical felt. Obviously when you are watching the characters being hurt you are sad, but it seemed like more often there were moments of overcoming those issues and that was so positive. There were so many empowering moments in the show and the entire audience was buzzing with excitement when those were happening. It was just not at all what I was expecting but exactly what I needed to see.

With feeling down and working on trying to get back to myself, I know that I do need to work on feeling empowered and not a victim to circumstances. And that’s exactly what the characters in this musical were doing. Their circumstances were very different from mine, but that didn’t matter. Having the examples of watching people do this gave me stuff to think about and try to see where I can have that same attitude in my life.

I love when something that I have scheduled to do or attend just happens to fit in with exactly what I needed to see or hear. It doesn’t always happen that way and more often than not the musicals we see are just a fun night out. And there’s nothing wrong with having a fun night out because I know that they are important to my mental health. And I can forget to have fun sometimes and having musicals scheduled help me to not forget about it. But when the show we see hits me much deeper and has such a great impact on me, it feels so special and precious to me. And that’s exactly what “The Color Purple” did for me and I’m so glad that this was the musical we had this week.

Our next show is 3 weeks away and it will be a musical that I’ve seen before, which will be fun. Even though I’ve seen a lot of shows recently, it’s been rare for me to see something that I already have seen. And seeing a show for a second time (especially when it’s a different cast and production) is really fun for me because I love to see how things are made unique with that combination of cast and crew. But I did realize that the next season (which starts this fall) will be so many shows that I’ve seen at least once before and I’m getting super excited for that to happen!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailPlaying With Color (or Helping A Friend Go Purple) Default Thumbnail“An American In Paris” (or Not Exactly A Musical) Default ThumbnailDinner And Carole King (or The Best Musical Ever!) Default ThumbnailSchool Of Rock (or Just A Good Fun Musical) Default ThumbnailFinding Neverland (or An Unexpected Musical Experience) Default ThumbnailA Weird Night In Hollywood (or Another Musical In Our Season)

1 Comment

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

School Of Rock (or Just A Good Fun Musical)

Posted on May 8, 2018 | 2 comments

I’ve noticed that the musicals on my calendar are much closer together now (in the next year and a half, I’ve got 15 more musicals scheduled!). So even though it seems like I was just at the Pantages for my last musical, I was there again this weekend for another show! And this time, we were seeing “School of Rock”!

The musical is based on the movie and I’ve seen the movie a bunch of times. I was pretty excited to see how the musical adaptation would be since I was so familiar with the movie. And 2 of the other women in my group were in the same boat as me (1 member of the group has never seen the movie).

We had a quick dinner at Greenleaf before the show (we’ve done Shake Shack a lot lately and wanted to switch it up). I meant to take a photo of my dinner because it was really good but it totally just slipped my mind. But I highly recommend the turkey melt there because it was delicious. And yes, I ordered a turkey melt at a place that is known for salads. But it’s good to know that everything there is good!

We’ve gotten into such a routine with our musicals which I love. We all know what seats we sit in (we always have the same seats) and it just seems so normal and orderly to me. Even though we have season tickets and our shows are always the same time in a run of a show, it seems like we always have different people sitting around us. I thought maybe we’d be seeing the same people each show, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I think the couple sitting next to me has been there in the past, but because there isn’t really consistency with who sits there I could be wrong.

If you aren’t familiar with School of Rock, it’s about a guy who is kicked out of his band and pretends to be a substitute teacher at a fancy private school. He discovers the students in his class have musical talents and he creates a band to try to win a battle of the bands against the band that kicked him out. It’s not a complicated plot and that’s fine with me. I was saying to the group that we have had a lot of serious and heavy musicals and I really wanted something that was just fun and entertaining. And this fit that perfectly!

There were a lot of really great songs (some of which were stuck in our heads after the show) and the performers were great. But the most incredible performers were the kids in the show. There were amazing singers and the band members played their instruments live in the show. To play in front of a big crowd is tough for an adult, and these kids were just amazing! And watching them be so into playing and having fun with the songs was very entertaining! Since I can’t play a musical instrument, I’m always impressed with people who can. And these kids were more talented than most adults I know. I was just in awe watching.

The show is very similar to the movie and the songs from the movie are in the show (but the musical adds so many more songs). I was worried about the friend who hadn’t seen the movie because I didn’t know if I was enjoying the show so much because I love the movie. But she really enjoyed the show too which is a sign of a great show! If you can make people who are familiar with the original material and people who don’t know anything about the show both happy and enjoy it, that’s pretty special.

This was such a nice break from the serious shows we’ve had lately. And our next show will be another serious one. But to have a fun night out with my friends was exactly what I needed after feeling a bit low lately. I needed some laughing, fun, and entertainment to take my mind off of things that are bugging me. And even after leaving the show I continued to be in a better mood. I know I need to keep adding fun things in my life when I have low moments like I was having, and I’m just glad that I had this scheduled during a rough patch of my life.

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailThe Color Purple (or Such An Empowering Musical) Default ThumbnailAlmost The End Of The Musical Season (or Watching An Audience Fall In Love With An Actor) Default Thumbnail“An American In Paris” (or Not Exactly A Musical) Default ThumbnailA Weird Night In Hollywood (or Another Musical In Our Season) Default ThumbnailHocus Pocus (or Musical #3 For The Week!) Default ThumbnailBurgers And Broadway (or Another Musical)

2 Comments

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,

A Weird Night In Hollywood (or Another Musical In Our Season)

Posted on April 11, 2018 | 1 comment

It had been a little while since my Pantages group had a musical, but we finally had our second show of this season this past weekend. Our shows for the rest of the season will be coming pretty quickly (about once a month) so I’m excited to get to have a bunch of shows to see soon.

Our group’s usual routine is to get dinner before the show at one of the places near the theater. A few of us were on a budget so we decided to go with Shake Shack and we planned when to leave accordingly. But once we got near the theater, we noticed a couple of helicopters and various emergency vehicles with sirens on. We didn’t think too much about it because we were able to get into the parking garage. But as soon as we were at the street level, we saw what was causing all the commotion.

There was a guy climbing a construction crane right across from Shake Shack. Dozens of people were watching him and he didn’t seem to be doing it as a stunt. We were nervous because it didn’t look like he had any safety equipment and none of us wanted to watch him fall. So after a few minutes we headed over to the restaurant to have dinner before the show. By the time we were walking over to the theater, the guy was still on the crane but it turns out that he was apprehended pretty soon after the show started. It was a pretty weird start to our evening, but we were excited to be going to a show and having a fun night.

The show this time was “Love Never Dies” which is the sequel to “Phantom Of The Opera”.

I’ve shared on here before that Phantom isn’t necessarily my favorite show. I did enjoy it when I saw it the last time, but it’s still not at the top of my list. So I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t enjoy this show as much as I enjoy most of the shows. But I tried to have as open of a mind that I could and the excitement of the rest of the group helped me to be more excited.

Unfortunately, my concerns were pretty accurate. I thought the costumes and sets were amazing. And the performers were some of the best that we’ve seen. But the story wasn’t one that I connected with or loved and that was a bit frustrating. I really want to love every show that I see because I know how hard everyone works to put on a great performance. And this time I wanted to love it even more because I discovered that someone I worked with at Universal Studios about 10 years ago was in the cast. But I guess it just wasn’t meant to be for me.

The rest of my group felt a similar way about the show so I didn’t feel too bad that I wasn’t in love with it. And we all agreed that it had so many things going for it but we just weren’t connecting with the story. But that’s the risk you take when you see so many shows. There’s no way for us to love everything and sometimes a show we really wanted to like just isn’t our taste. But fortunately more often than not we are pleasantly surprised by how great a show is that we weren’t expecting to enjoy.

When the show was done we were glad to see the craziness outside the theater was done so we could easily get to our cars. And I think that even though we didn’t love the show we all still had a great time with our night out. A big part of our fun going to the shows is seeing the show, but we also love having time to hang out together!

We’ve already gotten our tickets for the next season, but our group will be changing then. One member of our group is going to switch what night she will be going to shows so she won’t be going with us. But we found another friend who wanted to join in so we will have a group of 4 next season as well. But this season still has several shows left so it’s not quite time to change things up. And I know that there are a bunch of shows this season that I am so excited to see!

Our next show is only about a month away and I can’t wait because it’s one that I’ve been looking forward to since the season was announced!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAnd Another Season Of Musicals (or The Next Season Will Be A Bit Different) Default ThumbnailAnother Round Of A Repeat Musical (or Seeing A Show A Different Way) Default ThumbnailLast Musical Of The Season (or A Classic Pantages Night Out) Default ThumbnailAnother Musical Season (or Enjoying A Repeat Musical) Default ThumbnailKicking Off A Musical Season (or Seeing A Cartoon Brought To Life) Default ThumbnailThe End Of My Musical Season (or Finally Enjoying Phantom)

1 Comment

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

More Musicals (or Back To A Fun Routine)

Posted on January 17, 2018 | 2 comments

It’s crazy to think that my last show at the Pantages was 5 months ago! It doesn’t feel like it was that long but I guess it has been almost half a year since I was at a show there. But the new season of shows just started and my group went to the first show of the year for us!

My entire group has renewed our tickets for this season, so it’s me and my 3 friends at the shows (the next season is announced soon and we are all thinking of renewing again). Every time we go to a show, I realize how lucky I am to have friends who go to shows with me. I had so many years of not going to a show because I didn’t want to go alone and now I’ve had a few years of seeing a ton of shows each year!

Going to our shows have become a fun routine for us. We almost always will meet up for dinner before the show and I love that we make it a full night out instead of just going to a show and going home. There are a couple of places we seem to rotate through for dinner before the show. This time, we decided to go to Shake Shack. I’ve discovered that I enjoy Shake Shack a lot more when I don’t have the bun on the burger, so I get my burgers in a lettuce wrap. And I figured after my tough workout a few hours earlier that day, I earned a shake too.

It was a lot of food and I wasn’t able to finish it all, but it was a nice splurge to have. We did realize that it would be much better in the future if we order on the app than wait in line. Even if we used the app right when we got in line, the food would have been ready first from the app. I guess you live and learn.

We took our time eating (plus the line took about 30 minutes) and walked across the street to the Pantages about 15 minutes before the show was going to start. The first show of the season is Aladdin and we are all big Disney fans. Our only concerns were about how close this show would be to the one we used to see at Disneyland. But we also knew the Disneyland show was pretty short compared to this musical and they had different musical numbers.

I really enjoyed this show! I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favorite musicals, but it’s good. There are a lot of classic Aladdin moments that are in the musical, but it’s also its own show. The cast was very talented and the leads were the actors who originated the roles on Broadway. We saw the understudy for Aladdin, but he was very good (I was a bit disappointed not to see the main actor as I was excited to watch him perform).

I think my favorite was the actor who played the Genie. That part is an actor’s dream because you do get to be fun and creative with it a bit. You can change things up with some of the joke and it is such a beloved character. And the actor was so talented and was just a joy to watch! Also, I think he is the funniest character in the show.

And not only were the actors great, we all agreed that the staging and costumes were incredible. The cave of wonders set was probably the best set I’ve ever seen with all the shows I have seen at the Pantages. And the costumes had so many sparkles and we were all mesmerized by them. It’s fun to see a show that is so detailed and elaborate because that’s not always how touring shows are.

It’s so nice to have a full year of musicals coming up. Our next musical isn’t for about 2 months (Aladdin is in LA for a while), but after that we pretty much have something every single month. And with the exception of seeing Cinderella again, every show this season will be a new show for me! And many of them have been shows I’ve been wanting to see. I have a feeling that this is going to be an amazing year of musicals and I’m so happy to get to do this!

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default Thumbnail“An American In Paris” (or Not Exactly A Musical) Default ThumbnailMamma Mia (or The Best Black Friday Deal Ever!) Default ThumbnailBurgers And Broadway (or Another Musical) Default ThumbnailMore Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages) Default ThumbnailHaving A Season Of Musicals (or Finally Enjoying Something I Haven’t Done Since I Moved To LA) Default ThumbnailWatching Musicals At Home (or Getting Antsy To Get Back To NYC)

2 Comments

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

An Epic End To The Pantages Season (or We Aren’t Going To Throw Away Our Shot)

Posted on August 16, 2017 | 5 comments

This past Sunday was the final show for my group in our current season at the Pantages. While we are a bit sad our season is over, we already have bought our season tickets for next season and we are really excited for that. But what was even more exciting was that the final show for the season was Hamilton! Getting to see Hamilton was the reason many people got season tickets this season. But I think all of us in my group were just excited to see all of the shows. Hamilton was just going to be a super amazing addition to the season!

And as we have done with the past few shows, we went to dinner at Wood & Vine before the show. And Wood & Vine just introduced a new menu with their new chef so we were ready to try some amazing new food and to have some of our favorites! Everything on the menu looked incredible, but we had to try to limit ourselves to make sure we didn’t feel overstuffed while at the show.

We ordered some veggies because they sounded delicious and they were a lighter option. The squash had an amazing butter sauce with some cheese and they were perfectly cooked so they still had a bit of crunch to them. And the carrots reminded us all of eating Honey Nut Cheerios! It was so crazy how sweet they were without having the sweetness overpowering the flavor of the carrots.

And while we knew we’d be ordering the bone marrow again, everything else that we got was something that was new to the menu. We were also able to have the tuna tartare, pork belly tacos, and the branzino filet.

And as we expected, everything was just incredible. I only had a taste of the tuna as it had a chili sauce on it and I’m really sensitive to spicy food. But it was really good and everyone else loved it. The pork belly tacos were so tender and the sauce on it was really refreshing. And the branzino was flaky and so flavorful! And of course, the bone marrow was out of this world! We had 2 orders of it and between the 4 of us the bones looked like this within minutes of the plate being brought to us.

When the bones were empty, Dani and Michelle decided to order some shots to have with the bones. They were actually talking about doing this the night before at my party so it was pretty funny that they were getting to do this. Doing a bone luge is a thing, I just hadn’t heard of it before they were talking about it at my party. If I knew I could handle a drink, I think I would have joined in with them. But it was cool getting to watch them and they seemed to really like it (even if it was a bit messy).

We also got to try some of the new desserts! They have a buttermilk panna cotta now which had berries on top. But what was our favorite was the new Nutella bombshell (and yes, I loved that it had bombshell in the name)! It had chocolate cake that was light and fluffy topped with Nutella mousse that reminded us of the texture of ice cream but was room temperature. It was so good that I can’t even think of better ways to describe it! And we also were given the butterscotch that we’ve had in the past but now it comes with maple ice cream which was loved by all of us.

Then the chef, Jennifer O’Neill came out to the table. It was wonderful to meet her and we were so excited to tell her how much we loved the food! And we got to learn about some things that might be coming up at Wood & Vine that we can’t wait for. I can’t share that stuff yet, but trust me I will as soon as I can!

After dinner we headed across the street for the show. We couldn’t believe it was finally time to see Hamilton! We ordered our season tickets about a year and a half ago and it seemed like we would never get to this date. And we were all remembering how we realized at my birthday party last year that it marked one year until the show. And it was finally here!

The energy in the theater was electric. I think everyone was just so excited to see the show (it only opened 2 days before so it was still very new to LA). The 4 of us kept saying how we couldn’t wait for the show to start. Michelle and I both have listen to the music from the show (many, many times) and have seen videos as well. But Dani and Elisa both tried to avoid seeing stuff about the show ahead of time since that’s how they like to see shows. But we were all equally ready for the show to start.

And I’m happy to say that all the hype about the show is true and more! I don’t know how to explain how amazing this show was and how it really is an incredible piece of theater. I wish that more people could see it because it’s that great. I know that ticket prices are high and there aren’t enough seats for everyone to see it now who want to. But hopefully eventually with the tours more people can experience this show.

While it’s a pretty long show (almost 3 hours when you include the intermission), it doesn’t feel like that at all. It goes by so quickly even though it is a very full show. I could see how there could be so much more show that I’d want to see and now I’m even more motivated than ever to finish reading the book that the show is based on (I’m about 1/4 of the way through the book).

I think all of us agree that this was such a highlight of what ended up being a pretty amazing season at the Pantages. We are all hoping that we will win the Ham4Ham lottery so we can go see the show again. It’s in LA for a few months so there’s a chance that at least one of us will win. But no matter what, we are all so grateful that we were able to see it with our season tickets!

SaveSave

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailThe End Of My Musical Season (or Finally Enjoying Phantom) Default ThumbnailThe Bodyguard and Bone Marrow (or An Amazing Dinner At Wood & Vine) Default ThumbnailMore Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages) Default ThumbnailSunsets and Songs (or Why Season Tickets To The Pantages Was The Best Decision Ever) Default ThumbnailBook Of Mormon and Marrow (or Another Night Out At The Pantages) Default ThumbnailThe Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note)

5 Comments

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Book Of Mormon and Marrow (or Another Night Out At The Pantages)

Posted on June 27, 2017 | 2 comments

This past week was another show for our season at the Pantages. This time, we were seeing “Book of Mormon”!. Usually our shows are on Sundays, but because of some scheduling issues we had to move our show. So we went this past Thursday and it ended up being such an awesome night out!

It was a bit weird having the show on a Thursday because once I was done with work it almost felt like a Sunday to me. I had to keep telling myself that it was Thursday and tried to keep doing my usual Thursday stuff I have to get done. We knew that there would be traffic getting out to Hollywood so we ended up meeting a bit earlier than we probably needed to at my house to carpool out there. But one advantage of Thursday night shows is that we were able to park at a parking meter! We normally can’t because of the timing of Sunday evening shows, but it was nice to only have to spend $4 in parking at a meter instead of $16 to park in a garage.

As always, the 4 of us went to dinner before the show. And because we had such an amazing time at Wood & Vine last time, we knew we’d have to go back there! The last time, it was raining so everyone was seated inside. But this time, it was a really nice evening and we were seated outside on their patio.

Sitting inside was fun, but I think I might have liked the patio a bit more. It’s always nice getting to sit outside and it didn’t feel like we were in the middle of Hollywood. It was quiet and peaceful back there. And we were told that sometimes they screen movies back there! We were all saying that we would have to find out when they do that and go back for sure!

Ever since our first time at Wood & Vine, we have been dreaming about what food we were going to get the next time we were there. We decided to start with some things we’ve had before and some new things so we can see if we have some new favorites.

But of course, what we have been dreaming about the most and what we knew we’d be ordering for sure was the bone marrow!

This time, the bone marrow was served a bit differently but it was still as delicious as we remembered it. We got 2 orders since there were 4 of us (last time 3 of us shared 1 order and it almost wasn’t enough) and it was the perfect thing to share. It was so creamy and flavorful and I’m already craving it again! There’s something so decadent about getting bone marrow and it feels like a real luxury. But it’s actually not that expensive (at least not at Wood & Vine) so it’s nice to have an affordable treat.

After eating all that, we were all pretty full. But then the manager came over and was chatting with us and asked us about what we wanted for dessert. We said how we were debating if we had room for dessert and he said that he had already placed an order for our usual. And to our surprise, they had treated us to all 3 desserts from the menu again!

We were not expecting to be treated to dessert again and we didn’t really plan our dinner to be having dessert. But even though we were all so full, there is always room for delicious desserts! We dug into all 3 of them and agreed that they were all amazing and so worth feeling super full.

This meal was just as good (or maybe even better) than our first time to Wood & Vine and we already know that we will be back before our next show this season. And we are talking about very possibly going there before every show next season as well. I just can’t believe it took us this long to discover this amazing restaurant!

We had taken our time with dinner so we were walking over to the show with only a few minutes before curtain. Fortunately, it only takes a minute or two to cross the street and we were at our seats right before the show started.

Since this wasn’t our normal night for our season tickets, we weren’t in our normal seats. But these seats might have been a bit better. They were similar to our normal seats (2 seats in 2 rows one behind the other) but a bit further back than we were seated for the other shows. But because we were farther back we had less of an obstructed side view. But even with the slightly obstructed view, I was so excited to see the show this time because the last time I saw “Book of Mormon” it was from the very back of a theater. So being up close was a nice change.

When I saw the show in NYC, Ben Platt was in the cast. He’s an incredible actor who is now a Tony winner. I had said to my friends that I felt a bit bad for this cast because Ben Platt is a tough act to follow. But this cast didn’t disappoint at all! They were amazing and they had some really fun and different takes with the characters. It almost didn’t feel like the same show because they had so many unique things that made their characters their own. Also, I felt like the choreography was very different from the Broadway show and that adding to making it feel unique and different.

We were all laughing so hard at the show and it was so much fun seeing it again now that I knew what to expect. It was totally a perfect evening out at the theater. We’ve only got one more show in our season (finally seeing “Hamilton”!) and then we’ve got 5 months after that before our first show in our next season. It’s so crazy to think that this season is almost over. It felt like it wasn’t that long ago that we were thinking that we still had a year before seeing “Hamilton”. Now it’s just over a month away!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food) Default ThumbnailMore Musicals! (or Another Season At Pantages) Default ThumbnailAn Epic End To The Pantages Season (or We Aren’t Going To Throw Away Our Shot) Default ThumbnailAnother Night At Pantages (or Hedwig Take 2) Default ThumbnailBlowouts, The Book Of Mormon, and Buddakan (or The End Of Day 2) Default ThumbnailThe Bodyguard and Bone Marrow (or An Amazing Dinner At Wood & Vine)

2 Comments

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , , , ,

The Bodyguard and Bone Marrow (or An Amazing Dinner At Wood & Vine)

Posted on May 10, 2017 | 5 comments

This past Sunday was another Pantages night out for me and my season ticket group. Normally I write about the dinner first and show second (as that’s the order that we do things), but I’m changing it up a bit. The show that we went to see was “The Bodyguard” and I’ll be honest that we were a bit unsure how we felt about this show before seeing it.

But this was such a fun show! It was explained to us as almost like a Whitney Houston concert with a bit of plot between the songs. And that’s a great description for the show! Deborah Cox is the lead and she was incredible! The songs were so much fun, the dancing was awesome, and everyone seemed to be dancing in their seats. And if you go to see the show, don’t leave during the curtain call. There is some fun after everyone takes a bow and I’m glad we stayed for it. Even though this was a show we were all unsure of before seeing it, I highly recommend getting tickets for it if you are looking for a fun night out at the theater!

Now, back to our dinner. Our group is always trying to figure out where to get dinner before our shows. We have gone to the same few places multiple times and when I was at the LA Times Festival of Books I went to the Pantages booth and grabbed one of their restaurant guides. I sent a photo of it to the group and we decided to check out Wood & Vine. Wood & Vine is right across from the theater and I have no clue why we hadn’t been there before. But trust me, we will be making many return trips there now!

Only 3 of us from the group could go to dinner, and since it is all shared plates we got a bunch of things for us to all share. We started with some olives which were perfect and then ordered a few things that sounded good to most of us. Michelle and Dani wanted the Brussels sprouts and I figured I’d try it. I hate them but I try to try foods that I think I hate at least twice a year. These were good, but there is still something about Brussels sprouts that I don’t think I will like (sorry Wood & Vine). But I think Michelle and Dani were happy I didn’t like them because they wanted them all to themselves!

Dani and I also split the mac and cheese which was so perfect! It was nice and creamy and the cracker crust on it was a nice crunch. And we also got the scallops and pork belly (scallops were something that I didn’t like until recently and started to like after forcing myself to try them) and I think we were all in heaven eating them.

But for us, even just looking at the menu, we were most looking forward to the bone marrow. My grandpa loved bone marrow and I actually had some at a Tone It Up dinner the night that he died. But I hadn’t really had an opportunity to order it since then. So to get it at Wood & Vine was exactly what I wanted. And when the plate came to our table, we were not disappointed. It looked incredible!

There are no words to describe how delicious this was. It was heaven on a plate and even just writing about it is making me crave it again!

The entire time that we were at Wood & Vine, the staff was just so nice to us. We got to chat a bit with the manager (he was the one who described the show as a Whitney Houston concert to us) and it was just wonderful and friendly there. And while we were eating we were looking so happy and they were telling us to save room for dessert. We figured they were talking about the bone marrow since that was the last thing that was coming to the table. We thought that was the perfect “dessert” for us and when we were done eating our table was full of empty plates where the amazing food had been.

But then, the chocolate pot de creme was brought over to our table. We thought it was a mistake but the staff let us know that they actually ordered dessert for us on the house! We were thanking them and then the other two desserts from the menu, butterscotch with bourbon ice cream and an apple fry pie, appeared on our table too! We couldn’t believe that they got us all 3 desserts from the menu on the house!

We were full, but of course there is a separate part of your stomach for dessert so we all dug in. And the desserts did not disappoint! They were all decadent and delicious and at that time the last member of our group, Elisa, got there and we offered to share the desserts with her too. We were not planning on dessert (we might have ordered a bit less if we knew we were getting it), but it was a fabulous end to an incredible meal. And to have the restaurant give us the desserts on the house to make sure we could try them is above and beyond what I would ever expect from a restaurant!

We’ve already decided as a group that when we go to see “Hamilton” in about 3 months that we will be returning to Wood & Vine. It is really one of the best restaurants that I’ve gone to and there are so many other things on the menu that I want to try now. And of course, we’ve joked that we are going to order at least 2 plates of bone marrow to split between the 4 of us. And I have a feeling that we will be going there for a lot of our pre-show dinners for our shows next season as well.

Usually my nights out at the Pantages are more about the show than our pre-show dinner. But because of how amazing the food and staff at Wood & Vine were, this time the food was totally the highlight of the evening and has raised the bar on what we expect out of our pre-show dinners! Thank you Wood & Vine for your hospitality, awesome Broadway show discussion, and the desserts you gave us!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAn Epic End To The Pantages Season (or We Aren’t Going To Throw Away Our Shot) Default ThumbnailA Culver City Dinner (or Meeting Some Tone It Up Ladies) Default ThumbnailA Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out) Default ThumbnailAn Amazing Dinner and Show (or The Food Might Have Been The Highlight Of The Night) Default ThumbnailBook Of Mormon and Marrow (or Another Night Out At The Pantages) Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food)

5 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,